Egypt expects to produce about 6.5 million tonnes of rice paddy this season, the supply ministry said on Tuesday, a jump from the roughly 5.1 million produced last year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Egypt this year planted a total area of rice of about 1.8 million feddans (1.87 million acres), which Supply Ministry Ali Moselhy said he hopes will enable Egypt to double its rice production.

Supply Ministry spokesman Mohamed Sweed said the planted area will yield about 4 million tonnes of white rice, consumption of which is expected at 3.3 million tonnes, allowing for a 700,000 tonne surplus.

Sweed said Egypt does not intend to import additional quantities from abroad, which it did last year despite a surplus after farmers refused to sell to the government because of a dispute over the local buying price.

This week Egypt said it would keep in place an export ban on rice, a policy it has intermittently imposed since 2008 in order to discourage over-cultivation of the water-intensive crop and to push down prices in the local market.